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Throughout the ages, Islamic law has been compatible with the scientific platform of each era. It is inconceivable that Islam stands as an obstacle, impeding knowledge and technological development. For this reason, this research paper aims to identify the stance of the Islamic law regarding the implementation of astronomical calculations to determine the beginning of the lunar months and establish the beginning of the special months such as Ramadan. This paper undertakes to clarify supporting and contesting opinions and furnishes evidences used in both positions. It further demonstrates that the majority of early scholars rejected astronomical calculations and forbade relying on them, while only a few accepted them due to the existence of a number of evidences substantiating their definitiveness, and due to the lack of definite evidence that prohibits their implementation. The research further demonstrates that most of the refuting evidences are based on former doubts about the accuracy of astronomical calculations. These doubts have, in our times, proved to be erroneous and mistrust in this science is no longer existent. Furthermore, the claim maintaining the unanimous consensus that rejected calculations present at the time of the Companions of the Prophet is not true; there is nothing in the reported hadiths to indicate the obligation of restricting the determination of the new moon to physical sightings. Branching from this, the paper addresses the order of precedence of the determining factors and concludes the implementation of astronomical calculations to refute the presence of the new moon. Therefore, if astronomical calculations determine the impossibility of sighting the new moon, physical sightings are not relied upon because they are then inconsistent with astronomical calculations. This is the opinion maintained by numerous contemporary scholars and the implemented opinion of Dar al-lfta al- Misriyyah.
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